Unwavering Resolve
by Narumo
Summary: Miranda Lotto has never been a warrior. Miranda Lotto was never been much of anything. She is weak, clumsy and bothersome to everyone around her. But now, now she is an exorcist.


Author's Notes: First D. Grayman piece. Thank to Jackidy for betaing this.

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Unwavering Resolve

"_Miranda, Miranda,_

_Unlucky woman Miranda,_

_Looking for a job again today?_

_You'd get fired soon anyway!"_

Miranda Lotto has never been a warrior. Miranda Lotto was never been much of anything. She is weak, clumsy and bothersome to everyone around her. A woman who only causes sighs, annoyance and a little pity because of how useless, how hopeless she is. But now, now she is an exorcist, so she stands next to Marie and tries to do her best to protect the headquarters and stop the Noah from stealing the egg back. And when the Noah wraps around her, she can only think about how she is failing everyone again. How she is letting down the only people in the world who believe in her.

"_You have a most bothersome ability, Lady... Terminate your invocation!"_

She fails Allen even when he is so much more hurt than her. She fails Lenalee, because she is here to protect when the girl can't, no matter how much she wants to. She fails Marie because she isn't a partner that can pull her own weight even when the headquarters falling to pieces around her. Miranda fails them all if she stops fighting, so she struggles to hold on a second longer, a second longer for them to catch their breath and do what she can't.

Her body stops functioning as her lungs scream for air, gasping for a breath that won't come. A breath that is being squished from her battered self. She tries to hold onto her innocence, even when her mind forgets why she should. She pleads to it to last a little longer, just a little longer, but the next blow shatters her control completely and her vision goes black. She doesn't even notice when she lost consciousness. She doesn't even hear the screams that call for her.

"_Hello~ I'm level four."_

She wakes to the akuma's scream, the sound piercing into her skull like nothing else ever could. Marie is writhing on the floor next to her, his sensitive ears receiving the attack full impact. She reaches for whatever strength she was left in her and calls for her innocence, calls for the only thing that can stop his pain. Her control almost shatters again when her barrier receives full front the monster's blast and the world around them erupts into flames.

She feels so weak, so very weak. She wants to lie down and let the flames consume her. And she would have, once upon a time. She would have because she is useless, a little sad creature that wastes the very air she breaths. But Marie, Bookman, Reever, Bak and everyone else are lying around her, depending only on her to save them. She can hear her heart praying silently to a god that doesn't seem to listen to any of them, praying for the lives in her hands. She can feel her heart praying to her innocence to give her power to do what she has never been able to do before; _protect_.

So Miranda refuses, even if years of failures try to drag her down, to do as her minds tell her to. She refuses to let her innocence stop protecting the people around her to wrap around her. She refuses to let Allen and Lenalee's world turn into dust because she was too weak. She wants to protect their world, the world that had welcome her, useless as she is, the world that receives her with warm smiles and words of encouragement, because even if she didn't deserve it, _they_ did.

"_Thank you Miranda."_

Allen with his charming smile and courage to face a world that looked so bleak. He, who refused to back down or give up on people, and sweet Lenalee, who taught her that the world was made up not of stone and bricks but the people around her. Both had believed in her when no-one would, both had made her part of their lives and believed that she could do what she never believed she could. Miranda wants to protect the ones who thanked her for the first time in her life in anyway she can.

So she will protect their world, every single piece of it. Even as she feels her whole body as it quake and her innocence shouting in protest. Even if she can feel the inferno raging around them and hope fading as time passes. Even if she doesn't know if there is nothing waiting for them outside, even if there is no-one to put down the flames that surround them, even if there is no-one waiting to welcome them home anymore.

Because if Miranda has been able to stand, even a little, on her own two feet is thanks to noble Allen, to sweet Lenalee, to charming Lavi, to strong Marie, to everyone who was welcome her and watched over her in this war. Because if Miranda is able to fight for a tomorrow, it's all due to being tough by them how to hope for one, because if Miranda is able to believe that they will triumph despite the odds, is all due to Allen, to Lenalee, to the Black Order showing her that miracles are build by their own will.

Miranda Lotto will save their world no matter what the cost. How can she do anything else when she was been given so much?

"_Supervisor... Everyone is alive."_

She will fight, struggle with all she was, struggle for the lives in her hands, in her and her innocence's hands. She will save them even if she crumbles in the effort, because she knows, even without knowing that they are fighting out there. Allen with his never wavering courage and Lenalee for a future for her world, Lavi, Kanda, General Theodore, everyone refuses to lie down, so Miranda won't do it either.

"_The Level four was destroyed... The long morning is over."_

"_...Miranda..."_

"_...Miranda... you can stop now..."_

"_..You have done good... It's alright now..."_

"_...The fire is out."_

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Author's Notes: ...enjoy?


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